The Hollywood film which tells the story of the mission to kill Osama bin
Laden was encouraged by the Obama administration, but may not show the
president in a good light.

The White House allowed the filmmakers access to CIA personnel and information to make the film, which is set to be released next month.

However, early reviews revealed that the only scene featuring the president shows him denying that the US uses torture while a terror suspect is waterboarded by a CIA agent.

Zero Dark Thirty has been seen by select critics whose early reviews reveal that the film features the waterboarding scene while at the same time playing audio of President Barack Obama saying that he does not believe the US should use torture.

One review says that the scene will make viewers want to complain to their local politicians about the use of torture against terror suspects.

The review on the website Showbiz411 reads: "While American intelligence is waterboarding prisoners, Obama is seen saying he doesn't believe in torture.

The pair were allowed inside the CIA vaults, where planning for the Bin Laden mission took place. They were allowed to meet White House officials and given access to one of the SEAL Team planners and commanders involved in the mission.

Congressman Peter King, the Republican head of the House Committee on Homeland Security, previously called for an investigation into whether the pair were provided with classified information during the film's production.

Mr Boal has denied it, saying: "I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified material. To my knowledge I never received any."

The US use of the controversial technique, which involves pouring water on the mouth and nose of a suspect thus creating the feeling of drowning, has been widely debated.

In 2011, the CIA director Leon Panetta appeared to admit that waterboarding had been used to elicit information from suspects during the hunt for Bin Laden.

Following the al-Qaeda leader's death, he said: "In the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here. It's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got.

"I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees."